U.S. Influenza Mitigation Analysis
Overview
Motivation
The U.S. has seasons during which certain groups are disproportionately impacted by the flu. Hospitals and clinics need additional staff to adequately treat these extra patients during this time.
Objective
Determine when and how much staff to send to each U.S. state.
Scope
The analysis uses influenza victim demographic data from the CDC and US census data from 2009 to 2019 to make prediction about the upcoming flu season.
Key Findings
Who
There is a strong correlation between age and flu mortality. In fact, elderly people (65+ years old) make up ~67% of flu mortalities.
Where
Using elderly population size as the metric, California, Florida, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, and New Jersey are the highest priority states.
When
Most of the highest priority states experience their peak flu season during January. Michigan’s peak season is in March.
Limitation 1
The most recent data is from 2019, making it slightly outdated for a 2024 forecast,
Limitation 2
The data is collected by sample surveys, and may not be representative of every hospital across the nation.
Limitation 3
Measuring in term of flu deaths does not leave much room to be proactive.
Next Step
Create more localized prioritization (city or hospital level).
Next Step
Identify the specific staffing needs of each location
Next Step
Send out medical staff and monitor results.
Tableau Storyboard
